Sibilla Aleramo
At the last FCW brunch (which was AWESOME!), I shared a bit of my research on the Italian women writer, Sibilla Aleramo. Someone asked me to blog a little bit on her, so here you go.
Born in 1876 in Alexandria as Rina Faccio, Sibilla Aleramo became a "mother" of Italian feminism and the Italian feminist movement. In 1906 she published her first book, an autobiographical novel entitled, Una Donna, under the name of Sibilla Aleramo. (Sybil being the prophetess and Aleramo from a well-known family near her home town. The book begins with her childhood (although the protagonist is never named) which was unique in that she was educated and worked as a young teenager in the glass factory that her father ran. The factory was in Le Marche, the province East of Tuscany, and in the time that the family moved from their cosmopolitan residence outside of Milan, Le Marche was considered "backward" and "southern." Having exhausted every educational possibility in her new town, Aleramo's father has her work as his accountant. One night in the office of the factory, a 25 year old man (she is only 15 here) with whom she works and has befriended, rapes her. Confused and upset, she is subjected to the only socially acceptable solution, marriage. Her rapist turned husband does not stop his abuse in marriage, in fact it is heightened. In marriage, also, she is transformed from an independent, free thinking young girl into an inprisoned woman (in fact, themes of imprisonment are common in Italian lit and many conferences have been held on this topic.).
So - Aleramo goes through a difficult first few years of marriage. She miscarries her first pregnancy because of her sister-in-laws temper, her mother commits suicide, her father has all but disowned her, when she finaly has a child (a moment of great joy and perhaps the most beautiful segment of the book) she loses her ability to breast feed again because of her sister-in-laws temper and must suffer through the emotional trauma of having a wet-nurse feed her child. All throughout this, her husband is cheating on her, raping her, hitting her and locking her and her baby in their bedroom during the day and forbidding her to be part of society.
But one thing Aleramo does have are books and journals. He provides these to her willingly - and she begins to correspond with other writers and publishers - finaly getting her own work published in a few papers. She builds a career as a writer from her bedroom/prison and is offered a position as editor of a women's magazine in Rome. At this time, her husband looses his job and the family moves to Rome where she will work as an editor from home (he refuses to let her have an office outside the home). He is incessantly jealous of her literati friends (D'Annunzio and Pirandello among them) and when she asks for a seperation, he refuses. He has been offered her father's position as the factory manager and he insists that their family move back to Le Marche. She leaves Rome and they return to her hell.
But she has tasted freedom and made important contacts and developed a support network outside of her home. She now has a place to run to. So, in the middle of the night, she says good bye to her 6 year old son (most tearful part) who begs to come with her (she would be imprisoned if she took him) and leaves on a train at 3:00 am.
The end of the book is directed at her son - hoping that some day he will read it and understand why his mother had to liberate herself.
Aleramo went on to publish 40 volumes - novels, poetry, translations...and have illustrious love affairs with many famous Italian writers (and one French woman!) Plus she taught literacy to the poor migrant workers outside of Rome and aided earthquake victims in Naples.
If Sibilla Aleramo isn't a FUCKING COOL WOMAN, then I don't know who is. She's the Simone de Beauvoir of Italy, but no one seems to know of her here. I'm about to change that.
Born in 1876 in Alexandria as Rina Faccio, Sibilla Aleramo became a "mother" of Italian feminism and the Italian feminist movement. In 1906 she published her first book, an autobiographical novel entitled, Una Donna, under the name of Sibilla Aleramo. (Sybil being the prophetess and Aleramo from a well-known family near her home town. The book begins with her childhood (although the protagonist is never named) which was unique in that she was educated and worked as a young teenager in the glass factory that her father ran. The factory was in Le Marche, the province East of Tuscany, and in the time that the family moved from their cosmopolitan residence outside of Milan, Le Marche was considered "backward" and "southern." Having exhausted every educational possibility in her new town, Aleramo's father has her work as his accountant. One night in the office of the factory, a 25 year old man (she is only 15 here) with whom she works and has befriended, rapes her. Confused and upset, she is subjected to the only socially acceptable solution, marriage. Her rapist turned husband does not stop his abuse in marriage, in fact it is heightened. In marriage, also, she is transformed from an independent, free thinking young girl into an inprisoned woman (in fact, themes of imprisonment are common in Italian lit and many conferences have been held on this topic.).
So - Aleramo goes through a difficult first few years of marriage. She miscarries her first pregnancy because of her sister-in-laws temper, her mother commits suicide, her father has all but disowned her, when she finaly has a child (a moment of great joy and perhaps the most beautiful segment of the book) she loses her ability to breast feed again because of her sister-in-laws temper and must suffer through the emotional trauma of having a wet-nurse feed her child. All throughout this, her husband is cheating on her, raping her, hitting her and locking her and her baby in their bedroom during the day and forbidding her to be part of society.
But one thing Aleramo does have are books and journals. He provides these to her willingly - and she begins to correspond with other writers and publishers - finaly getting her own work published in a few papers. She builds a career as a writer from her bedroom/prison and is offered a position as editor of a women's magazine in Rome. At this time, her husband looses his job and the family moves to Rome where she will work as an editor from home (he refuses to let her have an office outside the home). He is incessantly jealous of her literati friends (D'Annunzio and Pirandello among them) and when she asks for a seperation, he refuses. He has been offered her father's position as the factory manager and he insists that their family move back to Le Marche. She leaves Rome and they return to her hell.
But she has tasted freedom and made important contacts and developed a support network outside of her home. She now has a place to run to. So, in the middle of the night, she says good bye to her 6 year old son (most tearful part) who begs to come with her (she would be imprisoned if she took him) and leaves on a train at 3:00 am.
The end of the book is directed at her son - hoping that some day he will read it and understand why his mother had to liberate herself.
Aleramo went on to publish 40 volumes - novels, poetry, translations...and have illustrious love affairs with many famous Italian writers (and one French woman!) Plus she taught literacy to the poor migrant workers outside of Rome and aided earthquake victims in Naples.
If Sibilla Aleramo isn't a FUCKING COOL WOMAN, then I don't know who is. She's the Simone de Beauvoir of Italy, but no one seems to know of her here. I'm about to change that.
posted by FCW Society | 8:49 PM
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